Charms and Arrogance
by yblehs
Summary: The journey of Lily Evans and James Potter. Before and after Hogwarts.


**CHARMS AND ARROGANCE**

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_Disclaimer: Everything you recognize, and some things you might not, belong to J.K. Rowling. As I am quite a Harry Potter fanatic I've tried to keep with as many cannons possible and tried to keep to the timeline as best I could. Enjoy!_

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Chapter One – An Owl in London

An owl just wasn't something you saw everyday as you walked the streets of London but as a woman and her two daughters made their way to the underground the bright emerald eyes of the youngest daughter were trained on a shrinking silhouette of a tawny owl.

"Mum!" The small girl exclaimed, tugging excitedly on the woman's hand. "Mum, there was an owl flying by just now…during the day…isn't that a bit odd?"

"Yes, dear, I suppose it is," replied the red headed woman of near forty, Mrs. Evans, the mother of the two girls. "We need to get going girls, come on, Lily, Petunia." With that the three women slipped down into the underground, heading home.

As Mrs. Evans' and her two daughters' taxi cab pulled up in front of their house almost an hour later something caught Lily's eye. A tawny feather gracefully drifted down from the sky to the ground, floating this way and that before reaching its final destination. Remembering the owl from earlier a small pensive frown crossed the lips of the curious eleven year old. Those large green eyes of hers retraced the path that the feather had just taken and before she knew it her eyes were locked onto a pair of large amber eyes that belonged to the very owl she had seen earlier that morning as it was perched on the roof of Lily's house.

Her frown now creasing her small forehead, Lily kept her gaze firmly on owl as she opened the cab door and stepped out. Even as she walked up the cemented path to her door she was determined not to look away from the owl before she had to.

"Mum," she called out not daring to look over her shoulder for fear that the owl might fly away. "Mum, there's another owl…er well maybe the same owl. Look!"

Lily pointed up at the owl, which continued to stare down at Lily almost as intently as she stared up at it. Neither showed any signs of giving up this little staring match, nor of moving as Lily had stopped mid-step in the path. Mrs. Evans, now out of the car and walking up the pathway as well, looked to wear her youngest daughter was pointing to see the owl.

"Strange…" muttered Mrs. Evans absently, her own brow furrowing slightly as she took in this odd sight. "Very strange… Two owls in one day…perhaps they're migrating or something…though I didn't know they did that. And you'd think if they did that they would do it at night…Ah well, dear, let's get inside, you too, Petunia." Mrs. Evans broke her gaze on the owl to look over her shoulder at her other daughter who seemed not in the least bit interested in the owl but rather more interested in casting the back of her younger sister contemptuous glares.

"Come on you two," Mrs. Evans reiterated, giving Lily a little push towards the door. "Look the post has already come and I bet you're father's already left for work. Come on."

Both girls did as they were told, Lily grudgingly looking away from the owl and heading for there door, Petunia giving up on her glares and following her mother and sister to the house. Still curious about the owl Lily didn't notice a very peculiar letter as she scooped up the mail on the Evans' stoop and stood aside for her mother to unlock and open the door.

Once inside the three women of the house hold made there way to the kitchen, or rather Mrs. Evans did and her two daughters followed in her wake. Mrs. Evans glided into the kitchen and started bustling around, putting on water for tea as Lily and Petunia made themselves as useful as they found individually fit. Petunia immediately made a dash for the sink and from under it pulled out several cleaning products that she had bought wither own money. Unlike most other thirteen year old girls Petunia found it more pressing to buy cleaning products that lipsticks and perfumes, though she had quite a few bottles and sticks of those as well. Always the neat freak she began scouring the already clean kitchen for the second time that morning.

Lily on the other hand laid the stack of mail down on the kitchen table for her mother and began to absently sift through it. Though a neat child as well, Lily knew better than to get in the way of her sister and the kitchen was already clean, there wasn't much need for her anyways.

Heaving a distant sigh as she thumbed through the mail Lily plopped down in the nearest chair and glanced out the window. Her mind still on the owl she was dead to the world until her thumb came into contact with a very unfamiliar material. Broken from her reverie Lily looked down at the pile of letters to see the very peculiar note that she had missed just minutes before. What was most strange about, she found, that it was addressed to her.

Ms. L. Evans

Number 12 Willow Crest Ln

Little Whining, Surrey

Wasting no more time than to recognize that the envelope was made of parchment and was sealed with an odd crest, Lily ripped open the letter and changed her life forever.

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Three weeks later, Lily wheeled a trolley laden with a heavy leather trunk twice the size of her with the gold emblazoned initials of L.E. catching the florescent light in the overheads in King's Cross station past platform after platform as her mother, father, and sister followed behind her. The same parchment letter was clutched in her tiny hand as she struggled greatly to keep the trolley moving forward.

Everything made since now. All the odd things that had happened to her, making things explode, the time her sister had woken up with a terrible boil after she had taken Lily's favorite doll, and countless other things all made perfect since, Lily Evans was a witch. A true, bonified witch, wand and all, that's what the letter had told her. It had also told her that she had been accepted to England's premier wizarding school and one of the greatest witchcraft schools in the world, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Lily couldn't have been happier.

Grinning from ear to ear she came to a halt between platforms nine and ten. The letter had told her told her to get on the train at platform 9 ¾, but where was that exactly? Suddenly panicked Lily spun around to face her parents.

"It said 9 ¾ right?" she inquired, hoping that she didn't sound too desperate.

Mr. Evans, whom Lily apparently inherited her green eyes from, opened his mouth to speak before he could reply to his youngest daughter, Petunia cut him off.

"I knew it!" she exclaimed. "I knew it was just a hoax! A witch! Humph! I'm surprised mum and dad bought this shite!"

This caused Mrs. Evans to shoot her elder daughter a reproachful glance. "Petunia watch your language!" she hissed in a kind-hearted whisper. "You came with us to that Diagon Alley place, how can you say such things to your sister!"

"I can say it because its shite!"

"Petunia!" It was now Mr. Evans' turn to round on the thirteen year old. "Watch your language! Your mother's already told you once!"

"But there's no platform, mum, dad! There's a nine and a ten but no 9 ¾! What rubbish!"

"It's not rubbish!"

Mr. and Mrs. Evans and Petunia all turned around to stare at Lily, as they had all but forgotten that she was still standing with them.

Emerald eyes shining, Lily stared indignantly up at her blonde, horsish sister. "It's not rubbish. I'm sure there's a platform. You just see. I bet there will be something like that brick thing in Diagon Alley that that nice old lady showed us…"

Almost as if on cue another family came bustling towards the Evans'. A boy just about the same age as Lily pushed a cart laden with a trunk like hers towards platforms nine in ten as his parents followed behind him. The boy wore glasses and had a raven mane of hair that stuck up in all sorts of places, giving the impression that he had never given it a brush in his life. His father looked much the same way, though it did seem that he had given his hair at least somewhat of a try. Something about this family had cause Lily to stop almost mid-sentence. Though the boy was dressed quite normally neither one of his parents, who seemed a bit too old to have a son so young, seemed to have any idea how one was to dress.

The mother wore men's' trousers and what peculiarly looked like a dickey and a cape while the father wore a pair of knickers and a blazer. The couple was causing quite a stir though maybe it was also the owl the boy was carrying.

The family of three stopped in front of the Evans' and an awkward silence ensued as the two families stared at one another. Suddenly something dawned on Lily.

"Er…excuse me," she began, letting go of her trolley, around which she had been staring, and stepped around it, revealing herself to the boy and his parents. "You wouldn't happen to know how to get to Platform 9 ¾ would you?"

The boy seemed at a completely loss with Lily's question, and only stared blankly at Lily, mouth agape, a small line of drool beginning to dribble downward causing Lily to survey him with raised brows.

"Er…do you?" she asked again.

"Yes, dear," replied the mother, now beaming at the little red head. "Is this your first year then? It's James' too." She threw her son a smile, though he was still staring, and drooling, at Lily. "Muggle-born, I assume." She turned to Lily's parents and beamed, noting that they had not known how to get onto the platform most likely meant that they were not of Magical heritage. "We'll see her off safe and sound, don't worry."

In the minutes that followed Lily found herself careening through the brick wall between platforms nine and ten and entering a world like the one she had encountered in Diagon Alley. On the other side of the wall she found Platform 9 ¾ which was filled with witches and wizards bidding their parents or children farewell and filling a scarlet steam engine, the Hogwarts Express. The bespectacled boy and his parents followed soon after and began to make their goodbyes, leaving Lily to push her cart over to the train herself.

This proved to be quite difficult as Lily was a rather petite child and her trunk was much, much larger than her. It would certainly be impossible, she reasoned, to get the trunk onto the train herself, and Lily was happy to find the boy from before rushing over to her aide once he had said goodbye to his parents, pushing his trunk along as well.

"Hey you need some help?" he asked cockily, brushing a hand through his hair and flashing Lily a confident and slightly mischievous grin, a grin she would soon hate. Apparently he had finally found his voice.

Lily nodded politely and stepped aside for the boy. "Thanks."

The boy, whose name started with a 'j' as far as Lily could remember, easily lifted Lily's trunk onto the first step of the train, being quite a bit larger than Lily, or at the very least taller than her. Grinning all the more, he spun around and waggled his brows at Lily before, lifting the trunk up a step at a time until there wasn't another step for it to be lifted up on to.

"There you go," said the boy, cockiness coating every word, the grin now an arrogant smirk, so much arrogance for such a young boy.

"Thanks," replied Lily, scurrying up the stairs after her boy and her trunk. "See you around." And with that Lily began to push her trunk down the corridor looking for an empty compartment, leaving the messy haired boy behind.

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After what seemed like an endless train ride later Lily found herself gliding across a starlit lake towards Hogwarts, the most beautiful castle she had ever seen. Turrets twisting this way and that, and through every window candles and torches twinkled merrily inviting the new students forward. It was like nothing Lily had ever seen before.

The little boats skimmed a long for quite some time, as it was a sizable lake, but before Lily knew it, the little fleet of boats that carried the tiny first years across the lake was drifting into a small cave beneath the school. There was quite a scuffle to get out of the boats but after a good twenty minutes or so, and after several robes were soaked at least to a student's ankles, the group of first years were following the giant of a man Hagrid up a flight of stairs into the castle.

Several oak doors and another few flights of stairs and the first years were being lead through the cavernous Entrance Hall to a small empty chamber where they were told to wait by a very formidable looking witch who had swept down upon them with the sternest of looks.

"I am Professor McGonagall," she had said to them, her lined face showing very little warmth toward the students. All of them could tell that this lady was not going to be someone to mess with.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. The start of term banquet will begin shortly but before you will be able to take your seats with your fellow students you will be sorted into your houses. While you are your house will be something like your family within these walls. You will have classes together, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room. So as you can see the Sorting ceremony is quite important," the severe woman explained.

"The four houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards." This part of the speech seemed a bit rehearsed even to the young students whose ears had never heard a word of this before.

"While at Hogwarts," McGonagall continued. "Your triumphs will win your house points, while your rule-breaking will lose your house points. At the end of the year the house with the most points will win the House Cup, a very great honor. I know that each of you will be a credit to the house that you are sorted into.

"Now, the Sorting Ceremony will begin in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I will return when we are ready for you, so until then do your best to straighten yourselves up and be quiet. Excuse me." With that she left the chamber, her robes swishing as the door closed behind her.

After McGonagall departed an excited whisper broke out among the first years. What would this ceremony entail? What would they have to do? Would they have to perform some sort of magic to determine what house they would end up in or would they have to take some sort of test? Not a single one of them seemed to know and as the minutes ticked by the first years became more and more anxious.

When McGonagall returned quite a few looked like they might sick up and most were pail and clammy. Nothing so secretive could be good, could it? Nonetheless the first years followed McGonagall out of the chamber and into the Great Hall where they found four tables full of students staring hungrily up at them and behind them was a fifth table of teachers, all of whom seemed bored or bemused. Curiously though, directly in front of them stood a three legged stool upon which sat a tattered and patched old hat.

Once the first years were lined up in front of the hat and staring curiously up at it much to the first years' surprise the hat broke out into song. Once again Lily couldn't believe what she was seeing, a singing hat? How…well magical! And when the hat was finished the whole school erupted into tumultuous applause with the exception of the first years, all of which looked as if they might faint at the drop of a hat (no pun intended). The hat then bowed and the whole hall went silent.

Professor McGonagall stepped forward, a roll of parchment in hand and barked the small command to the line of eleven year olds: "When I call your name you will step forward, I will put the hat on your head, and you will sit on the stool to be sorted.

"ABBOTT, CHARLES!"

A small blonde boy walked meekly forward to the stool, a pained expression etched strongly on his pink face. McGonagall placed the old hat on his head and less than a minute later…

"HUFFLEPUFF!" cried the hat and cheers exploded from one of the tables behind the first years. Charles scampered off to the table and sat down with his new house, relieved to have the ordeal over and done with already.

"BONES, EDGAR!" McGonagall called next and the pattern repeated, but this time with a sort of dumpy red headed boy.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" yelled the hat once more and again there were loud cheers from the Hufflepuff table.

Black, Sirius became the very first Gryffindor and much to Lily's surprise the hall was also filled with loud hissing and boos from one of the other tables as Sirius took his seat. He seemed especially embarrassed; his face bright pink, though he looked excited and quite pleased with himself all the same. Several more students were called. A blonde girl not too far along after Sirius, named Greta Catchlove, was first to become a Ravenclaw and a thuggish boy by the name of Crabbe became the first one to join the ranks of Slytherin. Lots more shouting and quite a few minutes and students later Lily heard the most frightening thing she could imagine.

"EVANS, LILY!"

Choking back a fresh lump in her throat Lily stumbled forward, completely terrified at the prospect of being subject to the whole school's attention. She could feel the heat coming from her cheeks and though she herself couldn't see, her face was practically the color of her hair as she trekked forward to the hat. She stopped in front of McGonagall and stared wide-eyed up at the middle-aged witch. McGonagall nodded to the stool and Lily took this as a cue to sit down upon the three legged thing. The hat was placed gently onto her head, slipping over her ears neatly, and suddenly a quiet buzz was in her ear. It took quite a few minutes of this buzz, much over five minutes in fact, before the hat cried out "GRYFFINDOR!" and Lily jumped up as if she had been shocked to scurry over to the Gryffindor table to applause of her very own.

A few people along after that, a gorilla like boy by the name of Goyle became another Slytherin, but that Slytherin's cheers were quickly drowned out by those of the Gryffindors, for it seemed that the hat would choose nothing else for the next few studentss.

"LONGBOTTOM, FRANK!" --"GRYFFINDOR!"

"LUPIN, REMUS!" --"GRYFFINDOR!"

"MEADOWS, DORCUS!" --"GRYFFINDOR!"

The cheers were thunderous from the Gryffindors by this point and Lily missed quite a few names and placements before she was able to hear properly again. Two boys, Nott and Patil were become a Slytherin and Ravenclaw, respectively, soon after that.

Pettigrew, Peter, a round, little boy, became the next Gryffindor, and came waddling towards the Gryffindor table taking a seat near Lily. After flashing the newcomer a bright smile, which had cause Peter to blush violently red, Lily turned to see the messy haired boy from the train sauntering cockily up to the three legged stool.

"POTTER, JAMES!" McGonagall had called, though the boy was already standing next to her and waiting for the hat to be placed on his head. The Professor released a heavy sigh and placed the hat upon the boys head, rolling her eyes.

It took the hat awhile to decide with James, almost as long as it had taken with Lily. Close to five minutes later the rip in the hat's side split open and yelled out for the whole hall to hear: "GRYFFINDOR!"

After that Lily completely lost track of what was going on in the sorting and the last thing she really caught was "SNAPE, SEVERUS!"--"SLYTHERIN!" The rest went in one ear and out the other.

When all the students had been sorted and all the applause had died away a tall man with long silvery hair and a long silvery beard, both flecked with the faintest bit of auburn, stood at the fifth table full of teachers. He beamed around the room, blues eyes twinkling, until every student was giving him their full attention.

"Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts. As many of you will know from last year and years before, I am Professor Dumbledore. I am told that I should inform you that I will no longer be your teacher of Transfiguration, that role will now be played by Ms. Minerva McGonagall." He waved a hand at the professor who had greeted the first years, fresh applause erupted and when this subsided Dumbledore continued.

"As my position as Transfiguration teacher is no longer needed I will therefore be taking the role as Headmaster this year, stepping in where my dear friend, Armando Dippet, left off." This brought about thunderous applause, and the hall was practically shaking with noise, as most students in the hall seemed quite thrilled with this news.

Once again Dumbledore waited for the clapping to die away before continuing. "And, if that is all, and there are no more pressing announcements…Let the feast begin! Tuck in everyone!"

As the words reverberated in the stone walled cavern of a room, magnificent food flowered from the gold platters that had been sitting empty in front of Lily and the other students. Mountains and mountains food of anything you could imagine. Steak-and-kidney pie, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, roast chicken, blood pudding. French-fries, and even peppermint humbugs littered the tables. And there were also deserts. Blocks of ice cream, puddings, pies, there was nothing left out; there was something for every one and every taste.

Lily, suddenly realizing just how hungry she was, started filling her plate with everything that was in reach and as she ate she began some small talk with some of the other first years who had all sat in the same general area. In particular she talked to a sandy haired, little witch with freckles and an Irish accent.

After much eating and a good amount of talking Lily found herself contentedly full and quite tired. She was more than pleased when she saw Dumbledore standing once more and in a matter of seconds the hall was amiably silent. Smiling bemusedly, Dumbledore waited a few seconds before addressing the student body once again.

"Now that we are well fed and water I have only a few slightly less important start of term announcements," he informed them all.

"First of all, Mr. Filch would like for me to inform you that several new items have been added to the list of banned magical objects. You will find this list in his office if you chance to visit Mr. Filch. Also I would like to remind old and new students alike that the forest on the edge of grounds is out of bounds to _all_ students." With that Dumbledore's face creased into what was supposed to be a very serious frown, but his eyes were twinkling merrily just the same.

"I do believe that is all. Prefects, and Heads, please escort your houses to your dormitories. Welcome back, everyone and sleep well!"

The sound of benches scrapping the stone floors filled the hall and mingled with the buzz of conversation. Lily found herself being herded up with the other first years by a much older boy and girl before she and the others set off for their dormitory.

Had Lily not been as tired as she was she would have been surprised to find moving and talking paintings lining the walls of the castle, changing staircases, and hidden doors as she made her way up to the Gryffindor tower with her new classmates, but as it was Lily was more tired than she could ever remember and before she was aware of it she was standing in a crimson common room being directed to the first year girls' dormitory. "Up the stairs and to the left the last door down," she had been told and there she went.

In complete awe of the day she had had Lily stared around the dormitory that was soon to become her second home yawning from extreme exhaustion and utter fullness as the other first year girls found their trunks and beds and began getting ready for bed. Lily followed their example and before she knew it she was laying down with a smile on her lips, the hangings drawn around her bed, and as her head hit the pillow the eleven year old fell almost instantly asleep, fully expecting to wake up and find that it had all been a dream.

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A/N: I've wanted to write a good Lily/James story for quite sometime now, and though I've made a few attempts in the past nothing has really worked out too well for me. I'd love to hear all of your thoughts, positive or negative, and I hope that you enjoy this story as much as I know I will enjoy writing it.


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